teakettle31

A Site To Catalog My Aircraft Adventures

Cessna Citation Jet (CJ)

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Aircraft Information
> Aircraft Make: Cessna Model: 525 Nickname: Citation or CJ
> Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Business Jet
> FAA Category and Class: Airplane Multi-engine Land
> Engine Description: Twin jet

Aircraft Experience
> As of: 9/2/2021
> Number of Hours Flown: 54
> Number of Times Flown: 27
> Other Aircraft Models Associated: CJ, CJ1, CJ2, CJ3

First Flown Information
> Sequence First Flown: 115
> Date First Flown: 2/4/2002
> Location First Flown: Wichita Mid-continent airport (KICT)
> Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Cessna Production Audit

Recollections:
My first few flights in this airplane were a mix of production audits (a good way to get to know a design) and RVSM (Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums).  I later did autopilot, takeoff performance and flight control malfunction tests.  The “CJ” is a wonderful airplane that has been upgraded (avionics, engines, stretch) several times and is a very commercially successful airplane.  I’d love to own one!

Cessna 525A CJ2
(c) Wikipedia

Cessna 680 Sovereign

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Aircraft Information
> Aircraft Make: Cessna Model: 680 Nickname: Sovereign
> Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Business Jet
> FAA Category and Class: Airplane Multi-engine Land
> Engine Description: Twin jet

Aircraft Experience
> As of: 9/2/2021
> Number of Hours Flown: 84
> Number of Times Flown: 35
> Other Aircraft Models Associated: none

First Flown Information
> Sequence First Flown: 134
> Date First Flown: 3/25/2003
> Location First Flown: Wichita Mid-continent airport (KICT)
> Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Cessna Flight Test, Bob Rice

Recollections: The 680 was one of the first civilian flight test programs where I got extensive Part 25 testing experience.  My logbook from 2003 and 2004 shows that I did stall testing, inlet distortion, fuel system testing, systems testing at negative g, engine start testing, control system malfunction tests (Cessna does many of those in the airplane!), autopilot testing, and extensive testing to certify the airplane for flight in icing, including natural icing and “ice shapes” testing (see photos).

Cessna Sovereign Ice Instrumentation (c) Bob Stoney

Cessna builds a solid airplane and the amazing thing is, from the smallest bizject (like the CJ) to the biggest (like high-mach Citation X) they are fly very similarly.  The Sovereign was no exception.

Cessna Sovereign Spin Chute (c) Bob Stoney

One unusual aspect of my time in the Sovereign was it’s the only civilian airplane where I got a type rating in the airplane itself…..and I did it with an FAA guy (FSDO inspector Dan Buerki) in the other seat (and the PIC, a Cessna pilot, riding in the back!).  Dan was a great pilot and instructor, one of the many ASI’s who make FAA Flight Standards look good!

Cessna Sovereign Wing Ice Shapes (c) Bob Stoney

Hawker Horizon

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Hawker 4000 Horizon (file photo)
www.airliners.net
Hawker 4000 test “everything INCLUDING the Kitchen Sink” (drain mast testing)
(c) The Raytheon company

Anti-skid inoperative test gone bad
(c) Bob Stoney

Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Hawker Beechcraft
Aircraft Model: 4000
Aircraft Nickname: Horizon
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Business Jet
Category: Airplane
Class: Multi Engine Land
Engine Description: Twin Engine

First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown:
Date First Flown: 05/19/2004
Location First Flown: KBEC Beech Field, Wichita KS
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Darren Gould, Beech flight test

Aircraft Experience
As of: 07/29/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 190
Number of Times Flown: 130
Other Aircraft Models Associated: Raytheon, Hawker, Beech 4000

Recollections: This airplane is probably the best handling business jet I’ve flown. It flew like a dream, with very smooth controls, good stability but not so much that it adversely affected controllability and a cockpit that was dead-simple to operate in. As nice as the machine was, it was a nightmare from a certification/project perspective. Much delayed, it was Beech’s first Transport Category certification and I just don’t think they were ready for the level of engineering required to certify it. That, and the program went on long enough that there was a lot of turnover in the personnel working it.

For me, it was a test pilot’s dream. Though just a “project pilot” (not the lead, that job was accomplished by Kevin Campbell who, as I have mentioned, was the best mentor a person new to civil cert could have) I got to do a lot of the Stability and Control work, field performance (both takeoff and landing), and braking…along with a wide variety of systems and failure-case testing. It was an excellent program in that respect and I enjoyed working with a number of very good test pilots. In the end, I flew “the heck” out of the airplane and may have known it as well as a pilot can know an airplane. All of that was for naught, however, in that I never received a Type Rating. The FAA, like a lot of large organizations, has inertia for days and an administrative decision by an FAA employee meant I wasn’t “qualified” to receive a type rating. There is no less standardized a process than how test pilots get (or don’t get) type ratings. Oh, well.

The airplane was finally certified (after I transferred to Seattle) and sold in some numbers prior to the production being canceled. I still dream of the chance to fly it again someday.